Middle Orient

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi and U.S. forces now control virtually all of Iraq and Baghdad’s troops might be able to take on security responsibility for the whole country by the end of 2009, the top U.S. general in Iraq said on Monday.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Bombs killed 15 people and wounded around 140 in Istanbul late on Sunday, just hours ahead of a court case over banning the governing party that has plunged Turkey into political turmoil.

(Reuters) – At least 13 people died and up to 100 were wounded on Sunday when two bombs exploded in a shopping district in Istanbul, on the eve of Constitutional Court hearings that could end with the closure of Turkey’s governing AK Party.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Gunmen opened fire on Shi’ite pilgrims in southern Baghdad on Sunday, killing seven, as thousands made their way to a revered shrine in the Iraqi capital, police said.

CAIRO (Reuters) – An Egyptian criminal court found the owner of a Red Sea ferry not guilty of manslaughter on Sunday over the deaths of more than 1,000 passengers when the vessel caught fire and sank in 2006, court sources said.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – The Constitutional Court begins deliberating on Monday on whether the ruling AK Party has engaged in Islamist activities and should be closed, a case that has plunged Turkey into political and economic uncertainty.

(Reuters) – Following are brief descriptions of the main protagonists in the Turkish court case in which the ruling AK Party is charged with Islamist activities: TAYYIP ERDOGAN, PRIME MINISTER

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s military said on Sunday its fighter jets hit 12 Kurdish separatist targets in northern Iraq’s Qandil region in an operation that started at midnight.

JENIN, West Bank (Reuters) – Hamas and Fatah carried out tit-for-tat arrests of each other’s followers on Sunday after deadly Gaza bomb attacks fuelled tension between the Palestinian factions.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected accusations by Gaza’s Islamist Hamas rulers that his Fatah movement was behind a deadly bomb attack that killed five Hamas gunmen and a girl in Gaza two days ago.